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ISU REPORTS:
Pairs, Free Skating
The Pairs event concluded with the Free Skating. Xue Shen/Hongbo Zhao (CHN) skated off with the gold medal with their teammates Qing Pang/Jian Tong claiming the silver. Rena Inoue/John Baldwin (USA) took the bronze medal.
Overnight leaders Shen/Zhao had drawn to skate last. Their lyrical performance of « Meditation » from the opera « Thais » featured a side by side triple toe-double toe combination, a double Axel, a high triple twist and a big throw triple loop and Salchow as well as difficult lifts. The rarely seen forward outside death spiral, the spins ans pirals were all awarded a level four by the Technical Panel. The only glitch in their performance was a loss of unison in the side by side spin and they lost speed towards the end, finishing a little bit too late which led to a overtime deduction. Nevertheless, the two-time World Champions earned 133.76 points (67.85/66.91) and accumulated a total score of 203.05 to win their third Four Continents title after 1999 and 2003.
Skating to « Music of the Night » by Andrew Lloyd Webber Pang/Tong hit a side by side double Axel-double Axel sequence, a triple toeloop, triple twist, throw triple loop and Salchow. Their Axel lasso and toe lasso lift both were graded a level four. The reigning World Champions scored 119.53 points (61.26/58.27) and collected 175.48 points overall. The silver medal was their fifth medal at the Four Continents Championships. Pang/Tong won the event in 2002 and 2004 and were second in 2003 and 2005.
Inoue/Baldwin opened their routine set to a medley of music by Giacomo Puccini with a side by side triple toeloop followed by a double twist and a double Axel-double Axel sequence, but he stumbled out of the seonc jump. Inoue took a hard fall on the throw triple Axel, but recovered to land the throw triple loop later into the program. The couple go level four on all thei elements except the footwork which was graded a level three. The 2006 Four Continents Champions got 113.75 points (60.98/53.77) and remained in third place at 175.48 points.
« I think I can say it (winning) comes as a surprise to us. We had a lot of difficulties to overcome, and the last two competitions were very close. I still haven’t overcome the jetlag yet. Therefore we feel very happy to have scored over 200 points here”, Zhao told the press. ”This performance was about the same as at the Grand Prix Final, but we were a little bit slow, because of the altitude. We lost one point (overtime deduction). Technically we still can do better, there were some little errors. But the triple twist was much better today than yesterday”, his partner added.
“Our jumps have improved and it is important to get better. After winning the World Championships we hoped to get better but there have been a lot of obstacles to that. We are confident that we will skate much better at the (upcoming) World Championships”, Tong commented.
Valerie Marcoux/Craig Buntin (CAN) finished fourth. The three-time Canadian Champions landed a triple toe-triple toe sequence, but Marcoux popped the Axel while he fell on a double, and the couple didn’t finish their side by side spin (162.79 points). U.S. Champions Brooke Castile/Benjamin Okolski came in fifth at 160.04 points and were ranked fourth in the Free Skating. They put out a solid performance that included a triple twist, a double Axel-double toe sequence and a throw triple loop and Salchow.
Jessica Dubé/Bryce Davison withdrew during the Free Skating following an accident. Dubé suffered a laceration to the left side of her face (cheek and nose), when she came too close to her partner Bryce Davison and he hit her with his blade in the face. “She is doing very well, and she will be fine”, ISU Medical advisor Jane Moran | 
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